Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?

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Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
Series title card
Starring	James Bolam Rodney Bewes Brigit Forsyth Sheila Fearn
Theme music composer	Mike Hugg Ian La Frenais
Opening theme	"Whatever Happened to You?"
Ending theme	"Whatever Happened to You?"
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	27
Production
Producers	James Gilbert Bernard Thompson
Running time	30 minutes (series) 45 minutes (special)
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	9 January 1973 (1973-01-09) – 24 December 1974 (1974-12-24)

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? is a

The cast was reunited in 1975 for a BBC radio adaptation of series 1, transmitted on Radio 4 from July to October that year. A feature film spin-off was made in 1976. Around the time of its release, however, Rodney Bewes and James Bolam fell out over a misunderstanding involving the press, and never spoke again. This long-suspected feud was finally confirmed by Bewes while promoting his autobiography in 2005. Even while Bewes was alive, Bolam was consistently reluctant to talk about the show, and vetoed any attempt to revive his character.^[2] Following Bewes' death in November 2017, Bolam maintained there was never any rift.

Plot

Set in

Since the ending of the original series in 1966, Bob has left factory life behind and now works for his future father-in-law's construction firm,[3] something which makes him even more desperate to curry favour with Thelma and her family. At Thelma's urging, Bob is also joining sports clubs and attending dinner parties, which Terry views as Bob aspiring to join the middle class. This results in Terry viewing Bob as a class traitor and believing his own army experience and solid working-class ethos gives him moral superiority. To a considerable degree the comedy is built on class warfare. Whereas Bob, Thelma and Terry's sister Audrey have adapted to the various changes, Terry's failure to adjust to the changes that have occurred during his five years in the army result in him being left behind, a relic of the attitudes of the mid-1960s.

As implied in the lyrics to the programme's theme song, the 1970s series plays on both lads' feelings of nostalgia for the lost days of their reckless youth. Both of them are depressed by the demolition of so many of the landmarks of their childhood, though Bob, who works for a construction firm, sometimes sees it as progress. Bob has also bought his own house on a new estate, further distancing him from his and Terry's pasts. Reflecting the distinctions now separating the two young men, the opening credits show Terry waiting for a bus in the older and more industrial parts of the city, with Bob seen outside his new home with his own car in the modern surroundings of the Elm Lodge housing estate.

The conflict between what Bob had become, and what he saw himself as, led him to be impulsively inclined to follow the lead set by the more headstrong Terry, who led them recklessly into one scrape after another. Bob usually blamed his drinking, poor diet and reckless behaviour on Terry, a view with which Audrey and Thelma only too willingly agreed. This may have been true in part, but Bob needed little persuasion to stay out drinking with Terry or to behave accordingly. Bob does not actually move into his new house until after his wedding to Thelma due to fears of being judged by his new neighbours (although, in the final episode of the first series, both Bob and Thelma make it clear they have an active sex life), and for the first series lives with his mother. Terry lives with his parents (his father is never seen) in a 19th-century terrace, which he claims has far more character than Bob's new house, where "the only thing that tells you apart from your neighbours is the colour of your curtains".

The thirteen episodes of the first series, aired in 1973, have a loose narrative thread. The early episodes focus on Terry's return to civilian life following his discharge from the army, whereas later episodes focus on the planning for Bob and Thelma's wedding. The thirteen episodes of the second series, aired the following year, are mostly self-contained. However, the series opens with a focus on the growing romance between Terry and Thelma's sister Susan, partially continued from the first series. A four-episode storyline concerning Bob and Thelma's brief separation also begins during the middle of the series.

Theme song

The show's theme song, "Whatever Happened to You", was written by

Changes in format and style from The Likely Lads

Although Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? was a continuation of the earlier series and featured many of the same characters, the style and format had changed. Unlike the original show, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? was made in colour. Also, The Likely Lads had been quite "stagey" (in the theatrical sense) in its format, being studio bound with little in the way of location filming. The 1970s series made extensive use of location filming in and around the north-east. In terms of humour, the two shows are very different. The Likely Lads had been a broad comedy, full of jokes and obvious gags, whereas Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? used much subtler humour, derived from the dialogue and characterisation, often interspersed with sentimentality and even touches of pathos as the lads mourned or reflected on their lost past. Nostalgia was a strong thread running through the show. The lads frequently did ask each other the question in the show's title, Whatever happened to us?, particularly during their more mellow moments in the pub.

Cast

Regular cast

• James Bolam as Terry Collier
• Rodney Bewes as Bob Ferris
• Brigit Forsyth as Thelma Chambers (later Ferris), Bob's fiancée, whom he marries at the end of series 1
• Sheila Fearn as Audrey Collier, married name unknown, Terry's elder sister.

Recurring cast

• Bill Owen as George Chambers, Thelma's father
• Joan Hickson (Series 1) and Noel Dyson (Series 2) as Mrs Chambers, Thelma's mother
• Anita Carey as Susan Chambers, Thelma's sister, who lives in Toronto, Canada, with her accountant fiancé Peter
• Olive Milbourne as Edith Collier, mother of Terry, Audrey and Linda
• Robert Gillespie, police officer
• Barbara Ogilvie as Alice Ferris, Bob's mother
• Ronald Lacey as Ernie, Audrey's husband
• Elizabeth Lax as Wendy, Bob's secretary
• Christopher Biggins as "Podge" Rowley, Bob and Terry's friend
• Julian Holloway as Alan Boyle, Bob's friend originally from Surrey
• Juliet Aykroyd as Anthea, Thelma's assistant at the library

Unseen characters

• Cyril Collier, Terry and Audrey's dad, who appeared in the 1960s series
• Leslie Ferris, Bob's father (in the 1960s series, it was established that Bob's father is deceased)
• Linda Collier, Terry and Audrey's sister
• Frank Clark, Bob's original choice for best man
• Nigel "Little Hutch" Hutchinson, a sex-mad pal who always has a racing tip for Terry
• Norma Braithwaite, a childhood schoolfriend of Thelma's who passed on Bob's letters of apology to her
• Cloughie, a workmate of Bob and Terry from the 1960s series. It is mentioned in passing that he now runs a newsagent's
• Jutta Baumgarten, Terry's estranged West German wife. She was due to appear in the last episode of Series 1, played by April Walker, but after filming her first scene, the writers decided against having both male characters married and released Walker from her contract. Despite this, Walker remains on the end credits despite not appearing in the episode.
• Maurice "Memphis" Hardaker, a member of the lads' skiffle group, Rob Ferris and the Wildcats. He was also mentioned in the original 1960s series as colleague Morrie Hardaker
• Deirdre Birchwood, an ex-girlfriend of Bob's with somewhat loose morals. The frequent references to her became a running gag (with the line "Don't mention Deirdre Birchwood!" becoming a catchphrase)
• Wendy Thwaites, another ex-girlfriend of Bob's, with whom he had his first sexual experience

Episode guide

Series 1

Series 2

Radio series

The thirteen episodes of Series 1 were adapted for radio, with the original television cast, and broadcast on Radio 4 between 30 July and 22 October 1975. This series is periodically re-broadcast in the "classic comedy" hour on digital radio channel BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Context

Before the 1970s series was made, the cast had already been reunited twice, in 1967 and 1968, to record sixteen of the original television scripts for two series (of eight episodes each) on BBC Radio, the scripts for which were adapted for radio by James Bolam.

To emphasise continuity, the opening section of the title credits at the start of each episode includes a short montage of black-and-white stills photos of Bob and Terry in scenes from the 1960s series, presented as if in a photograph album. The leather-bound photo album, which Bob gives Terry before the wedding, in the episode "End of an Era", is also the one seen in the opening credits.

To avoid animosity over billing, Rodney Bewes and James Bolam were alternated in the opening credits, so that one week Bewes was billed first and the following week Bolam was. In the closing credits the billing was reversed, with whoever had been billed second in the opening credits being billed first.

Bewes maintained his connections with The Likely Lads, appearing in a cameo role as the old newspaper seller in a 2002 ITV remake of the series' most popular episode, "No Hiding Place", starring

In 1995 and 1996, the series was repeated in its entirety on BBC2. It went on to become a short-term staple of cable channels and was again shown on satellite and cable TV in 2008 and 2009. In April 2013, the first series began a repeat run on BBC Four, its first showing on terrestrial television since 1996. Both series and the feature film have also been released on DVD.

One of the most notable continuity points about the show is that Terry served in the Army for "five years". However, there was a real-life gap of seven years between the end of the original series in 1966 and the sequel in 1973. Also, there are numerous references in the 1970s show to the Lads' shared adventures in 1967, plus citations of that year as the time when Terry was last in town. From the audience's point of view, Terry was last heard in the radio series, broadcast during 1967 and 1968. Taken all together, it suggests Terry's army service lasted for the five years from 1968 (i.e., the end of the radio series) to 1973.

Terry's full name is Terence Daniel Collier, born 29 February 1944. Bob's full name is Robert Andrew Scarborough Ferris, born a week earlier. These dates can be worked out from dialogue in the episode "Birthday Boy". The "Scarborough" in Bob's name is because he was conceived there (although this is contradicted in the opening flashback sequence in the 1976 feature film). However, Terry's "silver tankard" joke in his best man's speech at the end of Series 1 (in the episode "End of an Era") seems to imply that he, not Bob, turned 21 first.

Terry is younger than his sisters Audrey (Sheila Fearn) and Linda (who is never seen). Their parents are Edith and Cyril Collier. Terry's father is not seen in either series of the 1970s show. Bob's father, Leslie, had died in the 1960s (as established in the 1960s episode "Friends and Neighbours"). Terry's dad is neither dead nor absent; he is continually referred to in the 1970s series, and also in the feature film, appeared in the 1960s series but is never actually seen (although, in the opening flashback in the film, a back view of him is briefly visible, which is clearly James Bolam, and Bolam also provides the voice-over dialogue in that scene). Bob's mother, Alice, occasionally appears; Terry's mother Edith (Olive Milbourne) is frequently seen in the 1973 series.

Thelma's full maiden name is Thelma Ingrid Chambers. Thelma's father, played by Bill Owen, is George Chambers. Her younger sister is Susan, who lives in Toronto, Canada, with her accountant fiancé Peter.

The lads attended Park Infants School, Park Junior School and Park Secondary Modern. Thelma was with them for infants and juniors, but then went to the grammar school. One of Bob's most notable school romances is the often mentioned but never seen: Deirdre Birchwood, who was the basis of a running joke in Series 1, where any mention of her (or of any other former girlfriend of Bob's) was guaranteed to upset Thelma. (A Deirdre Birchwood actually appears in an episode of the Bewes vehicle,